‘It’s hard to believe that this time last week we are on the ferry across the Solent to the Isle of White.

I’d like to say a huge thank you and well done to everyone who took part- it was great to have each and everyone of you with us, as everybody contributed to making it so much fun.

There is no doubt that it was a hard weekend of cycling and from an organisational and safety side it was great that everyone took responsibility for how much they were able to do.

There are a load of great pictures for the ride on the roadclub blog https://amosroadclub.org/gallery/tdw-photos-2016/ including, rather surprisingly, quite a large number of pictures of horses (better than cats I suppose), and not enough of bikes on the beach at sunset.

Thank you also for all the really kind emails I have received. For those who are new it’s our tradition to make a few observations from the ride. So in no particular order

Jack, for cycling with his mum and for going up each hill cycling back to her and giving her a report on what to expect before going up again.

Millie, for desperately trying to abandon her mum and crack on without her

Sarah R, for convincing her childen to leave her so she could just enjoy the ride.

Catherine, for the unmendable puncture which required a full surgical team to track down the intrusion.

Chris P, for fantastic route planning back to Winchester and leading the lost out of Portsmouth.

Susie and Azey, such a shame you weren’t able to cycle more, I hope you are both fully recovered and Azey thanks for your passion about our partners work with girls on the streets.

Ali, it was great to have you join us and to see you and Jacs charging off onto the distance.

Lucas, for sharing in my impeccable time keeping, Suzi for believing that we would have enough sense to give a false time for the Van’s departure and then frantically packing and throwing her bag in as it left for the ferry and Richie – what a super star – aged 10 completing the 1st and 3rd days ride which were serious cycle rides.

George Mac, welcome back it was great to have you join us again after Paris.

Iain Mac, and Peter W, for a glorious afternoon ride round the southern half of the Island.

Neil, who was feeling so ill after day 1 and yet knew that his brothers in law would never let him off the ride, so he slashed his own tyre to get our of day 2 and to nurse an awful cold.

Liz , Jill and Nat, it was fantastic to have you all over – even if cycling (or revision) wasn’t high up on this years agenda,

Lee, it was fantastic to have someone along who actually knew what he was doing

Mike S, who decided to sabotage his own rear derailleur to see if Lee really did know his stuff

Alice and Liam, such fantastic encouragement all of the time and very sensibly this year without a fixie

John W, wonderful to have you back and for doing such a great job gently organising the Cambridge crew and making sure no one got left behind people

Bryan, there is no better sight than seeing the vintage bike ahead of you, sunlight reflecting off wing mirrors and hipflasks

Alisdair, for making sure the whiskey flowed and that Chris P and I savoured every moment of day 1 by arriving just as the ferry was about to leave.

Jenny, who not only did the park run before heading off on the Saturday but then also decided to swim back across the Solent, hopefully Jonny will be back with us next year.

Talking of swimming it was great to be joined by the East London Massive Caitlin, Gabe, Joel and Stephen, swimming, camp fires, marshmallows and tearing round the island

John P, our other newcomer, so glad you joined us and look forward to cycling with you to Paris next year

Ben, who finally convinced Dean that it really was worth having a bike weighting less than his bodyweight

Pete B, who battled on even when he was feeling dreadful.

George L, great to have you back and huge well done for covering so much of the island despite your bike screaming in protest

Sarah F, who raided her hospital departments first supplies and for once didn’t need any of them ( lovely to meet your parents)

Iain C, who left his usual bike behind to give Jack a chance on the hills

Joan, lovely to have you back again and next year we will make sure we use a few more of the hand gestures used in your club

Richard, who just gets better every year and was in such strong form that Tony spent a lot of the time struggling to stay on your when wheel (Tony hope to see you at St Pauls one Sunday)

Steve, who gave us all a scare earlier in the year but was in rude cycling form despite 2 sleepless nights.

Mark, great journey down and back in the van, looking forward to seeing the series of paintings inspired by the Tour de White

Finally,

Nive, for among so many things for cracking the whip and getting us moving on the Monday morning – arriving a whole hour early for the ferry.

Isobel, the most wonderful and encouraging Van driver we could ever want to have

Mike, thanks so much for all the hard work – creating the routes – checking them out and doing so much more – there will be less hills next year.

I hope to see all of your fairly soon, we have a number of partners coming over in the next few months and we will be touring the country with them. If you don’t already get email updates form Amos please let us know and we will add you to the list.

If anyone would like to join in planning next years ride we would love to have you join us in this. We are thinking of doing London to Paris over 4 days, as it is so good cycling and traveling through France and this way we can have long leisurely lunches in French market towns. We are looking at the possibility of starting in South West London, cycling down to Portsmouth, catching the overnight ferry to Caen (or somewhere similar) and then coming in to Paris over 3 days from there.